I looked at and thought to myself–oh my god, someone has to write that story. And when I read the article, it detailed this horrific history dating back years about how the musical kept changing producers. The first producer actually died from a stroke as he signed the contract. The show was cursed from Day One. And that’s when I realized I had my opening.
When the show opened for previews all these terrible things that no one had anticipated started happening. Actors fell like flies and got injured; the story was incoherent. And reporters quoted Julie saying bizarre things, like the show was never better and that she may not have even meant for it to be a traditional Broadway musical. Her name got dragged through the mud. So that’s what the story turned out to be: the rise and fall of a visionary woman who in her two show career was behind a massive success and a massive failure.
It’s an original show with an original score based on what’s now part of Broadway history. We don’t use any of their content except slightly during a preview but the focus is less on stage and more on the audience. They’re all tweeting about how bad it is. And although we tried to stay as true as we could someone times we had to compress characters. Natalie Mendoza and Evan Rachel Wood, who was briefly affiliated with the production, become one person. Oh, and the ending. It’s highly speculative. It may not be true. But no one ever said it didn’t happen, so we’re just going to assume it did.

“THE LEGEND OF JULIE TAYMOR, or The Musical That Killed Everybody!” ist noch am 16., 18. 21. und 24 August in New York zu sehen.